This invention relates to a scanning device and more particularly but not by way of limitation to an optical scanning device for mounting on a missile and the like.
Heretofore, homing guided missiles were highly complex mechanisms which led to manufacturing difficulty and requiring skilled labor at great expense. The most complex component of a homing missile is the seeker. Therefore, it follows that a simpler seeker mechanisim will reduce missile manufacturing costs and lead to ease of manufacture, higher reliability with additional benefits.
A variety of techniques exist for designing seekers which included self-stabilized gyro tracking heads and rate or position stabilization platforms. In recent years, small missiles with seekers working in optical or infrared bands have mounted the seeker optics on the rotor of a gyroscope. This provides a stable platform on which to operate but it severely inhibits the seeker due to space requirements which are limited for the essential seeker mechanism. Further, the scan freedom is limited by the necessity of torquing a gyro to change the position of field of view. Also there is difficulty in extracting signal energy from a rotating gyro. Further, it is difficult to provide a mechanical design of the gyro which survives missile launch acceleration. Attempts to overcome these problems have included the building of larger gyros to allow for more space, providing multiple detectors to reduce scanning requirements, using fiber optics to provide a flexible means of coupling energy and designing compliant bearings to survive launch accelerations. The above mentioned problems and difficulties are solved by the subject invention as described herein. In the following U.S. patents, U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,807 to Briney, U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,246 to Voight, U.S. Pat. No. 4,087,061 to Burt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,949 to Jones, U.S. Pat. No. 4,413,177 to Godwin, Jr., et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,878 to Buchtel et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,260 to Donelan various types of optical scanning apparatus are described for use with gyro systems. None of these above mentioned scanning and seeking devices provide the unique features and advantages of the subject invention.